Defendant proposed night before 'Sniper' murders
STEPHENVILLE, Texas — On the night before Eddie Ray Routh went to an Erath County gun range with "American Sniper" Chris Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield, he proposed to his girlfriend.
Jennifer Weed testified Wednesday that Routh dropped to his knees to ask her to marry him, and wept when she accepted.
It was a serene moment in a turbulent night.
Routh, 27, is charged in the Feb. 2, 2013, deaths of the famed former Navy SEAL sniper and Littlefield at a shooting range. The trial has drawn intense interest, partly because of an Oscar-nominated film based on Kyle's memoir.
Routh, a former Marine, has pleaded not guilty, and his attorneys are mounting an insanity defense. They say Routh was in a psychotic state at the time of the killings.
Weed told jurors that she had been mad at Routh because he was smoking pot when she arrived Feb. 1, 2013, at the Lancaster home where Routh lived with his parents. Weed testified Routh had promised her he would stop smoking marijuana and drinking.
Weed took jurors through the many highs and lows of their relationship. She said she has a degree in psychology, and that she met Routh through an online dating service in spring 2012.
She thought him funny and outgoing. That changed.
At a Routh family gathering in September 2012, Routh drank and fought with his father, perhaps over guns. According to court filings on the incident, he left intoxicated and crying after threatening to kill his family and himself.
Police took him to Green Oaks Hospital, a private psychiatric facility in Dallas, which transferred him to a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital. Weed said Routh was released to her care, and moved in temporarily with her and her roommate.
On Jan. 17, 2013, there was another eruption.
He phoned her to pick him up in Lancaster. She said, "He came running out of his house and jumped in my car, screaming, 'Go, go, go!'"
His behavior grew more erratic. She said he called her a demon "trying to steal his soul. It was very out of character."
The morning of Jan. 19, she found him "visibly shaking" and "sweat-soaked." When she tried to get him to leave her apartment for an appointment, he balked. Weed said he grabbed a decorative sword and blocked the door, but did not threaten her.
"He insisted people were out to get him and we were going to stay in the apartment because it was safe," she testified.
Weed's roommate managed to call police. Routh ended up back in the VA hospital until Jan. 25.
Weed said after his release, she visited him at home. She found him normal while on medication, but then crying and sad.
By the night of Feb. 1, the night before the murders, she said Routh was smoking pot, and seeing and hearing things.
"He said they were listening to us, so he got out a yellow legal pad and started writing on a legal pad," Weed said.
After the marriage proposal, they fought again the next morning, Feb. 2. She was upset because he put a dip of tobacco in his mouth. She said he was "paranoid" about the government and refused to shower for weeks. Despite her anger that morning, she stayed until Routh's uncle, Jamie, arrived.
Later that day, the uncle called her to ask if she knew where Routh had gone. She called Chris Kyle, who texted back that Routh was with him.
Kyle served four tours in Iraq and made more than 300 kills as a sniper for SEAL Team 3, according to his own count. After leaving the military, he volunteered with veterans facing mental health problems, often taking them shooting.
Routh's mother had asked Kyle to help her troubled son, so Kyle and Littlefield took Routh to Rough Creek Lodge and Resort for target practice at its shooting range. There, about 5 p.m., a resort employee discovered Kyle's and Littlefield's bodies.
Authorities say Routh arrived at his sister Laura Blevins' Midlothian home about 45 minutes later.
Blevins testified Wednesday that when Routh came to her home after the murders, the person who came to her door "was not who I know as my brother" and that she didn't want to be around him because of increasing "outbursts."
"He said he took their souls before they could take his. I asked him what he meant by that, and he said they were out to get him," Blevins said.
Blevins said that when she saw Kyle's truck, she began to fear he was telling the truth.
"When I was looking at him, he kind of looked like he was out of it, almost in a daze or something, and when I told him that I loved him, there was something in him that understood that," Blevins said.
Blevins testified that she'd distanced herself from her brother after he was hospitalized several times for mental health issues, fearing he could be a danger to her family.
Criminal law experts say a verdict hinges on whether the defense can prove Routh was insane and did not understand that the killings constituted a crime.
While prosecutors have described Routh as troubled, they've also said any history of mental illnesses should not absolve him of being accountable for the deaths.
"Mental illnesses, even the ones that this defendant may or may not have don't deprive people of the ability to be good citizens, to know right from wrong," Erath County District Attorney Alan Nash said during opening statements.
And while testimony and evidence presented by prosecutors often included Routh making odd statements, he also confessed several times, apologized for the crimes and tried to evade police.
Jurors have three options: find Routh guilty of capital murder, find him not guilty or find him not guilty by reason of insanity. If convicted, Routh faces life in prison without parole. Prosecutors aren't seeking the death penalty. Even if he's acquitted, Routh could remain in custody. The Texas criminal code stipulates that in cases involving violent crimes where defendants are found not guilty by reason of insanity, the court can initiate civil proceedings to have them committed.
Contributing: The Associated Press